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Search for Higgs and Z boson decays to Jψγ and Υ(nS)γ with the ATLAS detector
Aad, G.; et al., [Unknown]; Aben, R.; Angelozzi, I.; Beemster, L.J.; Bentvelsen, S.; Berge, D.; Bobbink, G.J.; Bos, K.; Brenner, L.; Butti, P.; Castelli, A.; Colijn, A.P.; de Jong, P.; de Nooij, L.; Deigaard, I.; Deluca, C.; Dhaliwal, S.; Ferrari, P.; Gadatsch, S.; Geerts, D.A.A.; Hartjes, F.; Hessey, N.P.; Hod, N.; Igonkina, O.; Karastathis, N.; Kluit, P.; Koffeman, E.; Linde, F.; Mahlstedt, J.; Mechnich, J.; Meyer, J.; Oussoren, K.P.; Sabato, G.; Salek, D.; Slawinska, M.; Valencic, N.; van den Wollenberg, W.; van der Deijl, P.C.; van der Geer, R.; van der Graaf, H.; van der Leeuw, R.; van Vulpen, I.; Verkerke, W.; Vermeulen, J.C.; Vreeswijk, M.; Weits, H.; Williams, S. Published in: Physical Review Letters
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.121801
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Citation for published version (APA): Aad, G., et al., U., Aben, R., Angelozzi, I., Beemster, L. J., Bentvelsen, S., Berge, D., Bobbink, G. J., Bos, K., Brenner, L., Butti, P., Castelli, A., Colijn, A. P., de Jong, P., de Nooij, L., Deigaard, I., Deluca, C., Dhaliwal, S., Ferrari, P., ... Williams, S. (2015). Search for Higgs and Z boson decays to Jψγ and Υ(nS)γ with the ATLAS detector. Physical Review Letters, 114(12), [121801]. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.121801
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Search for Higgs and Z Boson Decays to J=ψγ and ϒðnSÞγ with the ATLAS Detector G. Aad et al.* (ATLAS Collaboration) (Received 15 January 2015; published 26 March 2015) A search for the decays of the Higgs and Z bosons to J=ψγ and ϒðnSÞγ (n ¼ 1; 2; 3) is performed with pp 20 3 −1 pffiffiffi collision data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to . fb collected at s ¼ 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess of events is observed above expected backgrounds and 95% C.L. upper limits are placed on the branching fractions. In the J=ψγ final state the limits are 1.5 × 10−3 and 2.6 × 10−6 for the Higgs and Z boson decays, respectively, while in the ϒð1S; 2S; 3SÞγ final states the limits are ð1.3; 1.9; 1.3Þ × 10−3 and ð3.4; 6.5; 5.4Þ × 10−6, respectively.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.121801 PACS numbers: 14.80.Bn, 13.38.Dg, 14.70.Hp, 14.80.Ec
Rare decays of the recently discovered Higgs boson [1,2] important benchmark for the search and eventual observa- to a quarkonium state and a photon may offer unique tion of H → Qγ decays. Additionally, experimental access sensitivity to both the magnitude and sign of the Yukawa to resonant Qγ decay modes would also provide an couplings of the Higgs boson to quarks [3–6]. These invaluable tool for the more challenging measurement of couplings are challenging to access in hadron colliders inclusive associated Qγ production, which has been sug- through the direct H → qq¯ decays, owing to the over- gested as a promising probe of the nature of quarkonium whelming QCD background [7]. production in hadronic collisions [15,16]. Among the channels proposed as probes of the light The decays Z → Qγ have not yet been observed, with quark Yukawa couplings [4,6], those with the heavy the only experimental information arising from inclusive J=ψ ϒðnSÞ n ¼ 1; 2; 3 BðZ → J=ψXÞ¼ð3 51þ0.23Þ 10−3 quarkonia or ( ), collectively measurements, such as . −0.25 × denoted as Q, in the final state are the most readily and the 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits accessible, without requirements for dedicated triggers B½Z → ϒðnSÞX < ð4.4; 13.9; 9.4Þ × 10−5, from LEP and reconstruction methods beyond those used for identi- experiments [17–21]. fying the J=ψ or ϒ. In particular, the decay H → J=ψγ may This Letter presents a search for decays of the recently represent a viable probe of the Hcc¯ coupling [4], which is observed Higgs boson and the Z boson to J=ψγ and ϒðnSÞγ sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) [8,9], final states. The decays J=ψ → μþμ− and ϒðnSÞ → μþμ− at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The expected SM are used to reconstruct the quarkonium states. The search is branching fractions for these decays have been calculated performed with a sample of pp collision data correspond- to be BðH→J=ψγÞ¼ð2.8 0.2Þ×10−6, B½H→ϒðnSÞγ ¼ ing to an integrated luminosity of 19.2 fb−1 (20.3 fb−1) for ð6 1þ17.4;2 0þ1.9;2 4þ1.8Þ 10−10 J=ψγ ½ϒðnSÞγ . −6.1 . −1.3 . −1.3 × [5]. No experimental the analysis,pffiffiffi respectively, recorded at a information on these branching fractions exists. These center-of-mass energy s ¼ 8 TeV with the ATLAS decays are a source of background and potential control detector [22], described in detail in Ref. [23]. þ − sample for the nonresonant decays H → μ μ γ. These Higgs boson production is modeled using the POWHEG- nonresonant decays are sensitive to new physics [10]. BOX Monte Carlo (MC) event generator [24–28], separately Rare decay modes of the Z boson have attracted attention for the gluon fusion (ggF) and vector-boson fusion (VBF) focused on establishing their sensitivity to new physics processes calculated in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) α [11]. Several estimates of the SM branching fraction for the up to next-to-leading order in S. The Higgs boson trans- p decay Z → J=ψγ are available [12–14] with the most recent verse momentum ( T) distribution predicted for the ggF being ð9.96 1.86Þ × 10−8 [14]. Measuring these Z → Qγ process is reweighted to match the calculations of branching fractions, benefiting from the larger production Refs. [29,30], which include QCD corrections up to cross section relative to the Higgs case, would provide an next-to-next-to-leading order and QCD soft-gluon resum- mations up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithms. Quark mass effects in ggF production [31] are also accounted for. * Full author list given at the end of the article. Physics beyond the SM that modifies the charm coupling Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of can also change production dynamics and branching the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distri- fractions. In this analysis we assume the production rates bution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and and dynamics for a SM Higgs boson with mH ¼ 125 GeV, the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI. obtained from Ref. [32], with an uncertainty on the
0031-9007=15=114(12)=121801(19) 121801-1 © 2015 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration week ending PRL 114, 121801 (2015) PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 27 MARCH 2015 dominant ggF production mode of 12%. The VBF signal b-hadron decays, the measured transverse decay length model is appropriately scaled to account for the production Lxy between the dimuon vertex and the primary pp vertex W Z σ of a Higgs boson in association with a or boson or in is required to be less than three times its uncertainty Lxy.In association with a tt¯ pair, correcting for the relative this case, the primary pp vertexP is defined as the recon- production rates and experimental acceptances for structed vertex with the highest p2 of all associated H → i Ti these channels. Contributions from nonresonant tracks used to form the vertex. ðZ =γ Þγ → μþμ−γ decays are expected to be negligible Photon reconstruction is seeded by clusters of energy – with respect to the present sensitivity [33 35]. in the electromagnetic calorimeter. Clusters without The POWHEG-BOX MC event generator is also used to matching tracks are classified as unconverted photon Z model boson production. The total cross section is candidates. Clusters matched to tracks consistent with estimated from Ref. [36], with an uncertainty of 4%. the hypothesis of a photon conversion into an eþe− pair Z The Higgs and boson decays are simulated as a are classified as converted photon candidates [44]. cascade of two-body decays. Effects of the helicity of Reconstructed photon candidates are required to have γ the quarkonium states on the dimuon kinematics are transverse momentum p > 36 GeV, pseudorapidity Z T accounted for in both cases. For Higgs and boson events jηγj < 2.37, excluding the barrel/endcap calorimeter tran- generated using POWHEG-BOX,PYTHIA8.1 [37,38] is used sition region 1.37 < jηγj < 1.52, and to satisfy the “tight” to simulate showering and hadronization while PHOTOS photon identification criteria [45]. To further suppress the [39,40] is used to provide QED radiative corrections to the contamination from jets, an isolation requirement is final state. The simulated events are passed through the full imposed. The sum of the transverse momentum of all GEANT4 simulation of the ATLAS detector [41,42] and tracks and calorimeter energy deposits within ΔR ¼ 0.2 of processed with the same software used to reconstruct data the photon direction, excluding those associated with the events. reconstructed photon, is required to be less than 8% of the J=ψγ The data used to perform the search in the channel photon’s transverse momentum. were collected using a trigger that required at least one Combinations of a Q → μþμ− candidate and a photon, p > 18 ϒðnSÞγ muon with T GeV. The events used in the satisfying Δϕðμþμ−; γÞ > 0.5, are retained for further channel were collected with a trigger requiring an isolated analysis. To improve the sensitivity of the search, the p > 24 p muon with T GeV and a dimuon trigger with T events are classified into four exclusive categories, based thresholds of 18 and 8 GeV for each of the muons, upon the pseudorapidity of the muons and the photon respectively. Events are retained for analysis if they were reconstruction classification. Events where both muons are collected under stable LHC beam conditions and the within the region jημj < 1.05 and the photon is (is not) detector components were operating normally. classified as a conversion constitute the “barrel converted” Muons are reconstructed from inner-detector tracks (BC) [“barrel unconverted” (BU)] category. Events where combined with independent muon spectrometer tracks or at least one of the muons is outside the region jημj < 1.05 pμ > 3 track segments [43] and are required to have T GeV and the photon is (is not) classified as a conversion jημj < 2 5 Q → μþμ− and pseudorapidity . . Candidate constitute the “endcap converted” (EC) [“endcap uncon- decays are reconstructed from pairs of oppositely charged verted” (EU)] category. The number of candidates observed muons consistent with originating from a common vertex. in each category following the complete event selection is p The highest- T muon in a pair, called the leading muon in shown in Table I. pμ > 20 the following, is required to have T GeV. Dimuons The total signal efficiency (kinematic acceptance, trig- m J=ψ with a mass, μμ, within 0.2 GeV of the mass [17] are ger, and reconstruction efficiencies) in the J=ψγ final state þ − identified as J=ψ → μ μ candidates. In case both muons is 22% and 12% for the Higgs and Z boson decays, μ in the pair are within jη j < 1.05, the said requirement is respectively. The corresponding efficiencies for the ϒðnSÞγ 8 0 121801-2 week ending PRL 114, 121801 (2015) PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 27 MARCH 2015 TABLE I. The number of observed events in each analysis category. For comparison, the expected background yield is given in parentheses for the two mμμγ ranges of interest. The Higgs and Z boson contributions expected for branching fraction values of 10−3 and 10−6, respectively, are also shown. For ϒðnSÞγ, the 1S; 2S, and 3S contributions are summed. Observed (expected background) Signal Mass range [GeV] Z H Category All 80–100 115–135 B ½10−6 B ½10−3 J=ψγ BU 30 9 (8.9 1.3)5(5.0 0.9) 1.29 0.07 1.96 0.24 BC 29 8 (6.0 0.7)3(5.5 0.6) 0.63 0.03 1.06 0.13 EU 35 8 (8.7 1.0)10(5.8 0.8) 1.37 0.07 1.47 0.18 EC 23 6 (5.6 0.7)2(3.0 0.4) 0.99 0.05 0.93 0.12 ϒðnSÞγ BU 93 42 (39 6)16(12.9 2.0) 1.67 0.09 2.6 0.3 BC 71 32 (27.7 2.4)5(9.7 1.2) 0.79 0.04 1.45 0.18 EU 125 49 (47 6)16(17.8 2.4) 2.24 0.12 2.5 0.3 EC 85 31 (31 5)18(12.3 1.9) 1.55 0.08 1.60 0.20 inclusive QCD background shape, obtained with a data- the surviving pseudocandidates are used to construct driven approach, and of the Z → μþμ− background shape, templates for the kinematic distributions, notably the μμ obtained from simulation, is described in the following two inclusive QCD background mμμγ and pT distributions. paragraphs. The background from Z → μþμ−γ decays is modeled The background from inclusive QCD processes is with templates derived from a sample of simulated Z boson modeled with a nonparametric data-driven approach using events with mμμ in the ϒðnSÞ mass region. To validate this templates to describe the kinematic distributions. The background model with data, the sidebands of the mμμγ μþμ−γ approach exploits a sample of loosely selected distribution in several validation regions, defined by J=ψγ events, around 2400 in the channel and around relaxed kinematic or isolation requirements, are used to ϒðnSÞγ 3200 in the channel. These control samples are compare the prediction of the background model with the Qγ formed from events satisfying the nominal selection, data. Good agreement within the statistical uncertainties is but with relaxed dimuon and photon transverse momenta observed. pγ > 25 pμμ > 25 ( T GeV and T GeV) and isolation require- The composition of the inclusive QCD background and ments (separate fractional calorimeter energy and track the Z → μþμ−γ decay contribution is investigated with momentum isolation for the photon and dimuon system of data. The details of the composition do not enter directly less than 60%). Contamination of this sample from signal the background estimation for this search, but the compo- events is expected to be negligible. Probability density sition itself is a crucial input in feasibility studies for future pμμ pγ Δηðμþμ−; γÞ functions (pdfs) used to model the T , T, searches or measurements, where projections of these Δϕðμþμ−; γÞ and distributions of this control sample, backgrounds to different center-of-mass energies or lumi- independently for each category, are constructed using nosity conditions are needed. To facilitate this study, the Gaussian kernel density estimation [46]. To account for m jL =σ j γ þ − selection requirements on μμ and xy Lxy are relaxed to kinematic correlations, the distributions of pT, Δηðμ μ ; γÞ þ − include the sideband regions. In the J=ψγ final state, a and Δϕðμ μ ; γÞ are estimated in eight exclusive regions of μμ simultaneous unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the mμμ pT . In the case of the dimuon and photon isolation and jLxy=σL j distributions is performed. Once the simul- variables, correlations are accounted for by using two- xy dimensional histograms derived in five exclusive regions of taneous fit is performed, the composition of the subset of μμ m jL =σ j pT . The mμμ distributions are modeled using Gaussian events satisfying the nominal μμ and xy Lxy require- pdfs, with parameters derived from a fit to the control ments is estimated. After the complete event selection, sample. In the ϒðnSÞγ channel, the data control sample is around 56% of the events originate from prompt J=ψ corrected for contamination from Z → μþμ−γ decays. The production, 3% from nonprompt J=ψ production (from pdfs of these kinematic and isolation variables are sampled b-hadron decays) and 41% are combinatoric backgrounds to generate an ensemble of pseudocandidates, each with a from nonresonant dimuon events. complete Qγ four-vector and an associated pair of corre- A separate simultaneous fit to the mμμγ and mμμ lated dimuon and photon isolation values. The nominal distributions of the same sample of candidate J=ψ events selection requirements are imposed on the ensemble and finds no significant contribution from Z → μþμ−γ decays, a 121801-3 week ending PRL 114, 121801 (2015) PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 27 MARCH 2015 24 25 22 ATLAS ATLAS 20 s=8 TeV ∫Ldt = 19.2 fb-1 s=8 TeV ∫Ldt = 19.2 fb-1 20 18 Data Data S+B Fit S+B Fit 16 Background Background 14 H [B=10-3] 15 H [B=10-3] -6 -6 12 Z [B=10 ] Z [B=10 ] 10 10 8 Events / 4 GeV Events / 4 GeV 6 5 4 2 0 40 80 120 160 200 0 50 100 150 200 μμγ mμμγ [GeV] p [GeV] T μμγ FIG. 1 (color online). The mμμγ and pT distributions of the selected J=ψγ candidates, along with the results of the unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the signal and background model (S þ B fit). The error bars on the data points correspond to the statistical uncertainties. The Higgs and Z boson contributions as expected for branching fraction values of 10−3 and 10−6, respectively, are also shown. conclusion that is also supported by a study based on The uncertainty in the shape of the inclusive QCD simulated Z → μþμ− events. background is estimated through the study of variations For the ϒðnSÞγ final state a simultaneous fit is performed in the background modeling procedure. The shape of the to the mμμγ and mμμ distributions. After the full event pdf is allowed to vary around the nominal shape within an μμ γ selection, inclusive ϒðnSÞ production accounts for 7% of envelope associated with shifts in the pT and pT distri- events, 27% of the events are produced in Z → μþμ−γ butions. Furthermore, a separate background model, gen- decays, and 66% of the events are associated with combi- erated without removing the contamination from þ − natoric backgrounds from nonresonant dimuon events. The Z → μ μ γ decays, provides an upper bound on potential contribution from Z → μþμ−γ decays is in agreement with mismodeling associated with this process. the MC expectation. Results are extracted by means of a simultaneous Trigger efficiencies and efficiencies for muon and unbinned maximum likelihood fit, performed to the photon identification are determined from samples of selected events with 30 GeV